11/21/91 — Our NICU Journey Day 5

(Editor’s note: we learned a lot of medical jargon during our long stay in the Infant Special Care Unit. These are my journal entries as I wrote them. If you run across a term you don’t understand, please click on the Glossary tab for more information.)

Can you tell who is who in these pictures? Molly is on top, Isaac below. The little caps are to keep them warm, the masks over their eyes are to protect them from the bilirubin lights (which have a blue cast), the arm boards are to keep their IVs in place, the big tubes in their mouths are attached to ventilators to help them breathe. They wore no diapers because no diapers fit and their skin was too sensitive.

Both babies had been moved from open "Ohio" beds to closed isolettes, plastic boxes with arm holes, through which the doctors and nurses could attend to them and we could (occasionally) touch them.

Isaac

Today they did another ultrasound of your head looking for a brain bleed, which is still the biggest risk of being born this early. Your oxygen level is a little high, starting at 50 percent today, but now it’s down to 39.2. People who don’t need help breathing get 21 percent oxygen by breathing room air. You need extra help, so you are on a ventilator, which is a breathing machine. Uncle Robert and his girlfriend Rebecca came to visit you. Daddy and I went out to dinner with them and had Mexican food and Margaritas to celebrate your arrival. I only had a little sip of the Margarita because I am pumping breast milk for you, and you are on enough drugs. We don’t need to be adding alcohol to the mix.

Molly

You are off antibiotics and on room air. They’re messing with your fluids to try to get your sugar level right and monitoring your respiration. It’s just OK — not good, not bad. We may have a problem with the ductus that shunts blood away from your lungs while in utero and we’re watching that. You got an ultrasound of your head today. We are waiting for the results. I cupped my hand around you for about 10 minutes and you seemed to really like it. When I took my hand away, you opened your eyes! As if you were looking for me. I could touch you, but I still have not been able to hold you or Isaac in my arms.

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I just stumbled across your site, so glad I did. I look forward to following. I am the mother to B/G twins born at 28 weeks. They will be 3 this next Feb. Thanks so much for sharing your story. mollyandluke.blogspot

Look How We’ve Grown

The pictures in the banner at the top of this blog are Isaac shortly after birth (l), Ike and Molly in 2010 (c), and Molly shortly after birth (that's her dad's wedding ring dangling on her arm, just to put things in perspective).